Froissart Font

Our Froissart font was first released in 2000 as part of our Medieval Fonts and Art package. It is an accurate recreation of the Littera Bastarda calligraphic style which was popular in the 14th and 15th centuries as gothic styles were losing popularity and there was a demand for something less formal and easier to write rapidly. It takes it’s name from Jean Froissart whose Chroniques of the Hundred Years War were reproduced by the Blois school and widely distributed and lettered entirely in this style. Bastarda lettering was a significant step forward in calligraphy which, because it was easier to write quickly, resulted in a boom in the book industry and the production and distribution of larger editions of hand-lettered books to a broader popular audience than had previously been possible, particularly in England and France. The rise in the use of Bastarda coincided with the first period of popularity of vernacular literature which signaled the very earliest phase of the Renaissance.

This is a new and revised version of Froissart, with the weighting of the characters significantly adjusted, additional alternate character forms taken specifically from Froissart’s Chroniques, plus key period ligatures and French language characters.